• by January 25, 2008

Clearly the problem with the music industry is that radio is just giving the stuff away! You know that new Radiohead record I was allowed to download for any price I chose? Well, I paid about $5 (2 and a half pounds) for it. Imagine what a jerk I felt like this morning when I heard one of the tracks on the radio! FM is GIVING it away; why did I go and buy the thing?

What the RIAA needs to do is to start litigating against owners of broadcast radio stations, and -- more important -- the listeners thereof. The radio audience has been getting a free ride long enough, and as a paying fan I resent it!

Only when the airwaves, the Internet, the public square have all been totally purged of music, will we as consumers be free to enjoy their product as it is meant to be enjoyed, and as we have paid for the right to enjoy it.

I remember maybe 10 years ago reading in the Wall Street Journal that some summer camps who were not paying royalties were not to be allowed any longer to engage in public singing of "Happy Birthday" (copyrighted material, after all!) I remember thinking then and there, "Sure, that's a start, but it doesn't go nearly far enough!"

Never in the history of marketing has an industry been quite so forward-thinking and customer-focused as Big Music. I enthusiastically support their committed effort to suck as much joy out of the lives of millions as is humanly possible.

After all, isn't that what customer focus is all about?